“This
is a lawsuit over five dollars.” So begins the court’s analysis. On August 19,
2006, Google AdSense terminated Bradley's account, removed all ads, and failed
to pay plaintiff the approximately five dollars in revenue that the ads on her
site had generated.
Theresa Bradley’s $250,000 lawsuit alleges that her
staff spent 100 hours placing Google AdSense ads…only to have Google remove them,
alleging that Bradley clicked on her own ads in violation of the AdSense user
agreement. (For more information on this hilarious
lawsuit
see Update 43). Her claims: false advertising under the Lanham Act, fraud,
interference with prospective business advantage, violations of California
Commercial Code § 2207 relating to alteration of contract terms, breach of
contract, unlawful interception of electronic communications under 18 U.S.C. §
2520, invasion of privacy under California law, and intentional destruction of
evidence, professional property, and personal property.
Only one of her eight claims survived a motion to dismiss: On August 24,
2006, plaintiff discovered that all of the emails in which she had communicated
with Google AdSense had been removed or deleted from her account. This claim for
injury to personal property was not dismissed.
